Sippy Cup

We bought a sippy cup for Phoebe thinking it'll be handy on these crazy hot days. So far, she chews on the nub well and likes to shake it like everything else she gets her hands on. If I'm lucky, she get's an ounce down in an afternoon outing.

Monday, we visited Teddy Roosevelt Island. Even though I just said I wasn't going to do monuments, this one is cool. It's a huge island, totally left natural other than this fountain/courtyard/monument in the middle. It's rather odd, but probably the most appropriate tribute for this president. It was a very nice hike around the island.

It's been steamy here. I thought Minnesota was humid: I now have a new benchmark. Minnesota is dry as toast compared to this place. I hope to never travel south of the Mason-Dixon line in July or August. Phoebe's a sweat-ball at all times.

Scavenger Hunt: Item #1

I am aware that the majority . . . wait . . . all of you check this simply to see pictures of Phoebe. I understand . . .

However, I am going to start a new little project on this blog. Through some e-mails, my buddy John helped me narrow my mission for this year by sending me a short list of places or things to find and photograph in the D.C. area. None of these will include such over-photographed monuments like the Lincoln Memorial (go ahead and type google images, get a better picture than I can take, and tape your fav Phoebe pic to the bottom of it if you'd like a good touristy photo from us).

My first item was to find the stairs from the Exorcist--the famous stairs the priest tumbles down at the end of the film. I envisioned some creepy corridor between a couple of row houses. Nope. This was taken from the parking lot of an Exxon station in Georgetown. After climbing these steps with my bike (brutal!), I tried to find the house from the film. Well, every house at the top of the stairs looks like the house in the film in this part of Georgetown. Thanks John!

More to come . . . now enjoy Phoebe and ignore me.
~Andy

This IS the South . . . I think.

Since we've arrived, I've been impressed with the drawl I hear from many Virginianites (is that what they're called?) and it's made me really think we live in the south. Well, today I found evidence that we are indeed living in the south. Phoebe and I were out on a walk down Donaldson Run (aka creek or stream. That's not it, but could be I think . . . ) and I noticed the thickets of bamboo growing in people's yards. I thought that only grew in like Viet Nam or Guam. . . maybe Florida? Well, to me it locked it in: this is part of the south. People here who claim it's not are kind of like those who think Kentucky and Ohio are "Midwest States." (I know they are defined as midwestern, but they are only there because they don't have another group to hang out with)

There are a few simple criteria to be a midwestern state: 1) no accent (Kentucky's out) 2) no elevation change or city larger than 258 people for 120 miles (Ohio's out). 3) you must be able to see a thunderstorm approach for 3 hours before being rained on. Texas is more midwestern than those two, but that's a whole other rant.

So I guess being a part of the south is "having abundant bamboo"? Hmm. Help me out if you can. If I start seeing Grits advertised on kiosks in front of Perkins and IHOP here, I'll keep you posted. I need to get to the bottom of these districtings.

Anyway, as you can see, Phoebe clearly loves swimming in a pool and swinging at the park. We were swinging for a good 20 minutes today. One of the many nannies in the park had to help me get her out. She locked her knees when I was lifting her and her huge wool diaper cover and chubby thighs locked her down to the seat. While I was struggling, she just looked at me like "what's taking you so long dad."

We went swimming at a pool near Alisa's friend Sara's home in Maryland Saturday. Sara's daughter Izzy and Phoebe enjoyed playing together in the kiddie pool.

Playing with a favorite toy

Shouldn't N.Virginia be hotter than this?

We thought this place was going to melt us. Last night, we ran the air conditioner: 90 degrees and humid. But tonight we have cooler, drier weather with a nice breeze rolling in the windows. I don't think DC is supposed to be this nice in mid-summer. But we'll take it! This is the nicest summer weather I've ever had, even in MN!

Phoebe and I get out for runs regularly and she talks, yells, chirps, and thoroughly enjoys her chariot rides. I'm going to try to get in on the National Marathon in March and do the 1/2 (13.1 miles). I've never ran that far, so we'll see how it goes! Alisa had a nice quiet week of more orientation. While it was great to have her home every afternoon well before Phoebe went to bed, I think she's anxious to start working with patients.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Alisa's friend Sara who lives up in Maryland. She was at our wedding and worked with Alisa at Bread for the City when she lived here 10 years ago. We may get to an outdoor pool so hopefully there will be some silliness captured on film. Maybe Phoebe will be cute on camera too!

Sprayground

We debated walking to Hayes Park to try out Phoebe's swimming suit or going to the National Zoo yesterday. Being one of the first hot days here (the weather has been "mild" for DC . . . low 80s and low humidity--average high is 88 in July! but it's coming today) we opted for the park. As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed the cold water spraying all over her.

This will make for a nice option for Phoebe and me this summer on those dog day afternoons. We did realize that the suit we bought her is on the snug size. Hopefully she won't gain too many more pounds and out grow it this summer.

Stay-at-home-dad Week #1

Alisa crowned Phoebe with her links the other day. Usually they are more a tool of banging her booster seat with such vigor that she makes herself whince. I love the bottom picture . . . she looks a bit like Ceasar about to pass a new law. Or maybe just another poop.

Phoebe and I are enjoying our time together all day while Alisa goes to work. She's mostly sitting through some HR didactic sessions this week and will start seeing patients middle of next week. When Alisa comes home, Phoebe laughs, kicks and lunges at Alisa no matter how moody she's been all day.

Phoebe and I have stayed close to home this week trying to get our phone and internet going (which we finally have as of 2 hours ago!!!). But next week I hope to find a public pool to splash around in. Maybe I'll take Phoebe too. ;-) ~Andy

We're not tourists! (or are we?!)

We ventured out by bus and metro to walk around the Capitol Hill Historic Neighborhood yesterday (we wouldn't go near the metro and esp the Mall today!). We cut down a couple blocks to get some photos of us in front of the Capitol. Phoebe had a great day in the carrier including a wonderful poop shot up her back on the train ride home. When we got home, we were scrubbing her shoulder blades and base of her neck. Of course she didn't care.

It's odd to look around at the vast crowds of tourists, trying to identify where we fit. We are clearly not at home here, yet we are not on the summer holiday most of these folks are. It'll be an interesting year to spend in such an amazingly tourist-driven city while being residents across the river.

I've been out on my bike a fair bit. Arlington is an amazingly biker-friendly city. I can ride to the Lincoln memorial and the Mall in about 20 minutes, exculsively by bike path with just a short road ride that has a bike lane. I rode to the farmers market today by bike lane almost exclusively. Once Phoebe's ready for the Burley in the spring, hopefully we can ride our bikes to the Cherry Blossom festival in March!

We attended Hyattsville Mennonite Church last week and felt right at home. We were immediately invited for ice cream at someone's home and Alisa connected with a housemate of an old Bread for the City friend. The man who invited us over grew up in Churches Ferry, ND. Did we leave the midwest? I also found a great Catholic Church in S. Arlington. Our Lady Queen of Peace is a peace-oriented Catholic Church and it had a great feel to it, much like Ascension Church I attended in North Mpls.

Take care everyone!
Andy

Our New Home (or makeshift dormroom?)

Phoebe certainly doesn't mind that we are all sharing a one bedroom apartment this year. Her favorite new toys are paper, dad's hair, and her house with guys--which she particularly loves giving herself kisses in its mirror.

Alisa and I are comfortably pulling out the futon every night for bedtime in the living room. Without a TV, it feels more like a guestbedroom in someone's den since we're surrounded by books. The weather's been very pleasant here. Upper 70s and low 80s all week. We've only run the air-cond. a few times, which we gather is odd for Northern VA/D.C. in July. I'm assuming August won't be so nice.

We've been enjoying walks in our neighorhood, which is very residential. I have a feeling I'm not going to meet many families with stay-at-home parents in the park by our house since all the kids seem to be escorted by nannies. Northern VA seems to be quite wealthy with our apt complex within.

Verizon can't seem to find the short that is preventing us from getting a phone and DSL. I'm coordinating with the complex mngr this week so hopefully he can be present when the tech comes out for a 3rd time to provide access to other parts of our building that have wiring to our apt. We're sick of using up our pay-as-you-go phone minutes so sorry we've failed to call many of you. We will soon! We are checking our e-mail regularly thanks to someone in our building having an unsecure WiFi router. But we'd like to do some online banking and whatnot.

Otherwise, we are great! I will keep this active this year with more great pictures of our family and esp Phoebe as she grows.

Andy

On the Road

Summer is here and Phoebe's wearing clothes marked 18-24 months! She's enjoying sitting up a lot more on her own and eating carrots, apple sauce, and sweet potatoes.

We left MN yesterday and are somewhere in eastern Indiana this morning. Today, we drive to Arlington and tomorrow we move into our new apartment. Phoebe was a great traveller and is drooling on my shorts after a good night's sleep.

I'll keep you all posted this year as we explore our nation's capital.
Love, Andy (Alisa and Phoebe too!).